Abstract for 30th May 12.30-13.30: Lavanya Diwarkar
Although an estimated one in three of the UK population are affected by allergy/ allergic
disease, there are far too few specialists available to meet this challenge. Currently most of
the allergy cases are dealt with by General Practitioners who do not receive adequate training
in this field. Allergists, immunologists and specialists from various other fields (such as
dermatology, respiratory medicine and paediatrics) with varied levels of specific allergy
training contribute significantly towards meeting the needs of patients with allergic disorders
in secondary care. Services are generally provided on an ad-hoc basis and there is a great deal
of heterogeneity in the quality of primary and secondary services available.
This project aims to interview (a maximum of) 40 parents of children with various allergic
diseases. We want to understand their experiences with the diagnosis of their child's allergy,
if there were any problems with referral, the quality of advice given and their satisfaction
with the whole process. This will improve our understanding the problems with current
pathways and exploring possible alternate pathways for delivery of allergy services. The
attributes identified from this study will help us plan a discrete choice experiment which can
help capture the views of more stakeholders across the West Midlands.